Open Public Data Future Scenarios

Reflecting on the Consequences of Open Public Data Daniel Kaplan, Fing September, 2010 [email_address]

What happens if…?
A significant share of "public-service information" (PSI) has become available for access and re-use, in machine-readable format
What consequences on
The daily lives of citizens and firms?
Public agencies and public policy-making?
Innovation and growth?
Democracy and public spirit?
Are there ways of managing Open Public Data that produce different sets of consequences?
Consider this the beginning of an ongoing discussion…

The dominant story Large sets of PSI released, raw, mostly free… … Reused by a broad diversity of actors, producing… Transparency and accountability New / improved services New knowledge and insights Citizen empowerment
Less corruption
Better use of public resources
Less duplication in public IT investments
Better policy impact evaluation
More trust in government
Better services for the end-users
Better quality of life
Growth and innovation
More efficient public agencies
Scientific advancement
Data activists & media join forces in exposing failures
Better policy impact evaluation, better public decisions in the future
Self-confidence
Social trust
Better data thru citizen feedback
Democratic participation
Service co-design and co-production

But isn't this story just as likely? Large sets of PSI released, raw, mostly free… … Reused by a broad diversity of actors, producing… Transparency before accountability Privately-supplied public services Dubious, unshared new knowledge Citizen frustration
Endless discussion on individual spending decision
Court trials
Privacy breakdown
Less trust in government
Better services for affluent or community- bound end-users
Gvt. barred from reusing its own data
Privatization of specialized public data producers
Less public data
Data-based research influenced by funders' agendas
Incentive for data falsification
Highly unequal power to interpret data
Fragmentation of deliberative space
Data empower the empowered: lobbies and corporations
Increase inequality, both in terms of service quality and power distribution
Less social trust & participation

What causes the difference? Large sets of PSI released, raw, mostly free… … Reused by a broad diversity of actors, producing… Transparency before accountability Privately-supplied public services Unbeneficial new knowledge Citizen frustration Transparency and accountability New / improved public services New knowledge and insights Citizen empowerment ?

Are there other scenarios? How & Why do they differ from one another?

Does this also sound plausible? Large sets of PSI released, raw, mostly free… … Reused by a rather small number of actors, producing… Issue-based transparency Useful, but anecdotal services Not very significant knowledge product° Citizen indifference
Lobbies and activists expose what they see fit, ignore rest
Most other data remain little used
Untrust in government spreads to lobbies, geeks and techno-activists
Most applications created for fun and not maintained
Most good services don't scale or spread beyond "niches"
Low demand for data
Ability to draw meaning out of data remains rare
Spectacular dataviz, scant production of usable knowledge
Highly divergent interpretations of same data
Data empower the empowered: lobbies and corporations
Crowdsourcing peters out after initial successes
Data not seen as a means to take back power / autonomy

Write your story Large sets of PSI released, raw, mostly free… (Democracy) (Services) (Knowledge) (Citizens)
…
…
…
…

What do we know? What do we know we don't know?

Driving forces of PSI opening Economic Institutional Technological Societal
Liberalization
Growth found in service-based innovation
"Information wants to be free"
Lack of money
Achieve more with less, produce non-tax revenues
Transparency & participation drive
Web of data
Semantic web
Web 2.0
Open source
Damanining
Dataviz
Complexity
Demand for participation & empowerment
Consumerism
Low trust in institutions
Open Public-Service Information (PSI)

Tensions and uncertainties Government as facilitator / as service provider Government as primary data source / re-user or data Transparency / Privacy Transparency / Ability to make bold decisions Financing of public agencies whose job is to produce data Privatization of services / Data openness Empowering the empowered / the disenfranchised Empowering the public / Empowering corporations Creating trust / Destroying trust … Divergence about the meaning of data Power in establishing data structure, categories, granularity Incentive for data falsification, vandalism, etc. Distribution of ability to effectively use data …

What levers do we have in hand?

A few building blocks Data Mapping data Reference docs End-user info "Grey" docs Observation data Production data Financial data Directory data Actors IT businesses Government Local govts. Public services Other businesses Research Citizens Media Uses Reveal Facts Produce information Provide Interfaces Create new services Improve services Outcomes Improved services Transparency, accountability Efficiency, productivity New knowledge Innovative services Service coproduction Democratic participation Citizen empowerment NGOs <Special thanks to Tim Davies, Practical Participation>

Identifying levers Internal (directly related to PSI access policies)
Release conditions (price, licensing)
Transferability of release licenses to derivative uses
Data (re-)use capacity within the public sector
Public-sector funding, eg. of specialized information producing agencies
Data re-use ecosystem
…
External (No direct lever)
Distribution of ability to understand and re-use PSI
Ability to generate meaningful, shared public debate based on data
Relative importance of transparency uses / service-oriented uses
Level of service creation and improvement
Level of user involvement in the design and provision of these services
…
Political (can become levers if we so choose)
Promotion of a "culture of data"
Specific actions against "data divide"
Extension of open data to some private data
Data crowdsourcing
Hard thinking on "transparency" PSI
Specific public regulatory and proactive roles on PSI
…

Let's take it from here! Daniel Kaplan, Fing September, 2010 [email_address]

"Public Data" typology/ies Other possible typologies: by source, by destination, by finality (eg, "end-product" vs. "intermediary" data)… Stability Economic interest Public interest Documents Normative and reference documents (regulations, decisions…) ++ + ++ Mediated information directed towards end-users + + ++ "Grey" documents (eg, mail, studies, reports…) - + + Datasets Mapping data + ++ ++ Observation data (eg, stats, measurements…) - ++ ++ Production data (eg, filled-in forms, MIS data, inventories, real-time system data…) -- + + Budget and financial data - + ++ Directory data (eg, addresses, org charts…) - + +

Types of actors Produ-cers Re-users Inter-mediaries Economic interest Public interest Public institutions National / Continental ("Governments") ++ + + + ++ Local ++ + - + ++ Agencies & operational public services ++ + - ++ ++ Businesses Within the information sector +? ++ ++ ++ - IT providers - + + + + Other existing businesses +? ++ - ++ - Startups - ++ + ++ - Others Media, bloggers - ++ + + ++ NGOs, activists, lobbyists - ++ + - ++ Researchers + ++ - ++ ++ Individual citizens +? + - + ++

Uses of public data <Special thanks to Tim Davies, Practical Participation, "How is Open Data Being Used in Practice?"> Added value Difficulty Economic interest Public interest Reveal facts (search / browse / extract) - - + + Produce information (representation / interpretation) + + + ++ Produce an interface (means to interactively access and explore one or more datasets) ++ ++ + ++ Improve or transform services ++ ++ + ++ Create new services ++ ++ ++ ++

Expected outcomes Direct impact Indirect impact Economic interest Public interest Transparency and accountability ++ + - ++ Efficiency and productivity of public agencies - ++ + ++ New knowledge and insights + ++ + ++ Improved public services - ++ + ++ New public services - ++ ++ ++ Democratic participation - ++ - ++ Co-design / co-production of public services - ++ + ++ Citizen empowerment in personal / community life + ++ + +

Public-Service Information in France Daniel Kaplan, Fing September, 2010 [email_address]

Open Data in France

Local communities in the lead

http://www.frankwatching.com	1015
http://www.practicalparticipation.co.uk	111
http://www.opendataimpacts.net	50
http://paper.li	22
http://www.epsiplatform.com	13
http://www.epsiplatform.eu	10
http://www.epsiplus.net	3
http://epsiplatform.eu	3
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	2
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Open Public Data Future Scenarios

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